Romney mum on Federal Emergency Management Agency

Mitt Romney ignored repeated questions from reporters about whether he would eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) following a Tuesday “storm relief” appearance in Ohio that collected supplies for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

The pool report from reporters covering Romney states:

“TV pool asked Romney at least five times whether he would eliminate FEMA as president/what he would do with FEMA. He ignored the qs but they are audible on camera. The music stopped at points and the qs. would have been audible to him.”

“‘Governor, you’ve been asked 14 times, why are you refusing to answer the question?’”

During a Republican primary debate, earlier this year, Romney talked about states and private sector groups assuming responsibility for disaster relief.

“Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the state’s, that’s the right direction,” he argued. “And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. Instead of thinking, ‘In the federal budget, what we should cut?’ we should ask the opposite question, ‘What should we keep?’”

Asked specifically about drought relief by CNN’s John King, Romney replied: “We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future of our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off.”

Gov. Christie, a major Romney surrogate — and Republican National Convention keynoter — praised President Obama and FEMA for their response to Hurricane Sandy in Tuesday appearances on NBC’s “Today Show” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters at the Columbus, Ohio, airport said FEMA is doing “a helluva job” responding to Hurricane Sandy.